Month: April 2017

One day, I checked Instagram and stumbled onto a food blogger who regularly posts. His post displayed some sort of dessert. But, it was something I have not seen before. Inside his cup, there were rolls of ice cream topped with whipped cream, fudge, brownies, and a wafer. I remember seeing this before when a friend on Facebook posted this video at New York where a worker was making ice cream in what appears to look like a grill but frozen! On the surface, that worker poured milk as if you were making pancakes. After a minute or so, it was frozen. He used a spatula to roll up the frozen milk and place it in a cup. The thought of that kind of dessert was mindboggling, and I wondered if that will be brought to SoCal. A few months later and Chelo Creamery opened!

When Chelo Creamery first opened, I drove by since I worked nearby and saw it packed. I thought it was not a big deal and thought that people were hanging around the surrounding area. My girlfriend and I decided to get Half and Half one day, which is located next to Chelo. I said, “Wait, do you mind if I check out Chelo?” She replied with a nod and we headed inside. Upon heading to the counter, one of the workers at the registered stated that there is a 45-minute wait if I decide to get their signature Chelo Rolls. In my head, I said “F*** that!” and we left for Half and Half instead. We decided we will come back at another time outside peak hours. So, we went on a Saturday afternoon.

The wait was about 15 minutes, which is not as bad as our previous visit. I ordered “Ballin’ on a Fudge It” and my girlfriend ordered “Good-Zooky”. After a 20-minute wait, we finally received our orders! Before digging into our dessert, we paused and took photos for Instagram-sake. After 5 minutes, we were ready to get these desserts in our mouths. Upon taking my first taste of my order, I felt satisfied. It did not “WOW!” me nor left me feeling cheated. I did feel like I had better ice cream at other places. My girlfriend had the same sentiments as I did. Although, her order tasted better than mine and I felt envious. I do know that Chelo Creamery isn’t about its taste. It is about making desserts look good, at which they excel at.

Lately, they released a soft serve yogurt filled taiyaki. I did not get a chance to try it yet, but I will one day! Until then, if you are around the area, I would recommend trying this at least once. However, I highly recommend visiting between lunch and dinner to avoid long waits.

After 9 weeks of the Spring Split, we are at the end to determine the champions of the first half of the 2017 season. It was a grueling season, some saw winning streaks like Cloud9; but, ended up plateauing at the end of the split. Other teams struggled at first to find an identity like Team Dignitas, but finding their stride towards the end of the Spring Split. Either way, this split saw a great parity between teams in the middle of the standings. Usually, there is a tier of teams that would be more imbalanced than the rest of the teams in the LCS such as TSM, C9, and CLG. This split, we saw a change from those tiers, where TSM and C9 are way ahead of the pack. Other teams like CLG, Team Dignitas, FlyQuest, and Immortals placed into the middle tier of the LCS. These playoff series will see competitive games between these teams.

The first series of the quarterfinals will see Phoenix1, who surprised the LCS by dominating teams and placing 2nd at one time. They are a team who looked poised to take over the reigns as the number one team in the LCS from the likes of TSM and C9. Yet, the team struggled against teams like CLG and TSM — going 0-2 from those teams during the split (according to Esportspedia). They also split 1-1 during the split against FLY and DIG, in which most people could see P1 going 2-0. These losses developed a conflict in the team, triggered from Adrian’s infamous pregame interview. To summarize, Adrian stated that Meteos uses his brain, implying Inori does not. Inori responded with an interview by Blitz Esports stating he wants to prove himself to the organization and earn the respect of his teammates again. Shortly after the interview, Team Liquid purchased Adrian’s contract and Phoenix1 signed Stunt to fill Support from Week 7. A team does not make roster moves towards the end of the split due to disrupting team synergy. But, Phoenix1 needed a change before things get out of hand. Luckily, they are still a contending team but other teams should not overlook them moving forward.

In the quarterfinals, Phoenix1 will face Team Dignitas, who struggled to find an identity at the start of the Spring Split. Before the Spring Split, Team Dignitas acquired an all-star with Ssumday, and a solid jungler with Chaser. Many reporters placed Dignitas to be a top team. But, Team Dignitas lost to top-placed teams like C9 and TSM. But, struggled on winning games against Echo Fox and Immortals. Most critics blamed the losses on team communication, other critics such as Reginald blamed it on team owners buying top-tier Korean talent, and have no idea how to use them. Even so, Team Dignitas had to go through changes in the team to gain the trust with their players. Most people thought they were “packing their bags” for the split and trying to avoid relegations. Xpecial stated in an interview with Yahoo Esports that the team had to be patient and “believe in the process“. It paid off when Cop joined the team as head coach. Since Week 7, Team Dignitas started picking up wins going undefeated until the end of the split. If they continue their dominance, they have a possibility of winning against Phoenix1 and Cloud9.

In the 2 series that Team Dignitas and Phoenix1 had during the Spring Split, they split a series each 1-1. In Week 1, Team Dignitas won the series 2-1. This series marked the NA LCS debut of Ssumday and Chaser. Ssumday dominated zig in the top lane with a tank Maokai in Game 1 then played a carry top with Fiora in Game 3. Keane and LOD also helped carry the team to victory. All together, they cumulated 45 kills, 16 deaths, and 60 assists. In Game 1 and 3, Team Dignitas won the game in about 37 minutes on average. In Game 2 in which Phoenix1 won, they played a drawn out game and completed it in 52 minutes. Team Dignitas also held over a 10k difference in gold for both games that they won. Phoenix1 held a 4.4k gold difference in the only game they won. In Game 2, Phoenix1 had great vision throughout with 219 placed wards. In the games they lost, they only placed 136 for each game.

In the 2nd series on Week 6, Phoenix1 won the series 1-1. In the weeks leading up to their rematch, Team Dignitas struggled to win games; but, won games in Week 5 against FlyQuest and Team Liquid. Phoenix1 won games in Weeks 2 and 3 until they met TSM in Week 3. From there, Phoenix1 were not as dominant as they were and carried a 5-3 record leading up to Week 6 against Team Dignitas. In the last series, Ssumday, Keane, and LOD played exceptional. But, during this series, they were not as effective. Together, they got 17 kills, 21 deaths, and 30 assists. Their kill difference lowered from the previous series. The highlight was not the amount of deaths increasing; but, they had half of the amount of assists. Thus, kill participation for those 3 was not a big factor for Team Dignitas, in which Phoenix1 was able to capitalize and win games. Ryu played a big factor in Phoenix1’s victory, holding similar score lines of 6 kills and 1 death, and dealt the most damage for Phoenix1. In this series, time did not play a factor in Phoenix1’s victory as all the games beside Game 1 finished under 30 minutes — Game 1 finished in 34 minutes 47 seconds. Also, gold difference was not a significant stat in this series as Games 1 and 2 had about an 8k difference, but Game 3 had a 16k gold difference due to the early lead from Phoenix1. Three minutes into Game 3 and Phoenix1 snowballed as time progressed, leading to a win. Phoenix1 learned from their previous series is when they play a good macro game against Team Dignitas, they have a good probability in winning. In this series, they did a good job in placing wards throughout the series, placing 10 more wards than Team Dignitas in Games 1 and 3. They also did not let Team Dignitas destroy their inner towers in Games 1 and 3.

For Phoenix1 to win the series against Team Dignitas they have to continue playing a macro game. Placing wards, vision control, and taking down towers will be the winning factors. But, if Phoenix1 decides to play Meteos in the jungle, I can see the team working around Meteos. They won’t need much vision control as Meteos has good presence in the jungle and can keep Chaser in check. So, ganks from Meteos can appear out of nowhere if Dignitas still has a problem with ward placement from their previous two series.

But, Team Dignitas can win by feeding Keane and LOD. Lately, they did not rely on Ssumday with carrying, but he’s been tanking. This helped Keane and LOD pick up kills on the opposing teams, and the team was able to snowball to wins.

This weekend will mark Phoenix1’s first appearance in the NA LCS playoffs. Whereas, Team Dignitas has not seen an appearance in the NA LCS playoffs since the 2015 Summer Playoffs where they got swept by Team Impulse. Both teams have something to prove to the rest of the LCS teams, their sponsors, and their organization. Both teams will have a good showdown this weekend and can be watched here.

Author’s Note: Originally written on 5/19/2015 on Yelp with some grammar edits. Images courtesy of Yelp.

Sushi4u, not known for its logo design, but the service more than makes up for it. After a long day of shopping, and before having some fun with board games, my friends and I were craving sushi. Since we were around Brea, we wanted a sushi restaurant that will fulfill our cravings. We were not feeling Kula as it’s nothing new to us. We weren’t feeling Sushi In Motion either even though they have a good selection of sushi. Instead of teasing ourselves by reading some reviews, our mouths were salivating to have sushi. We wanted some damn good sushi, and our search on Yelp resulted here.

At first glance, Sushi4u looks like a dinky restaurant still in process of being constructed. Don’t let that fool you, though, on the inside, it’s a restaurant with huge spacing to fit big parties if needed. There’s no loud music blasting out the speakers when it’s someone’s birthday like other AYCE restaurants, and TVs with sports on to accommodate a male companion if any ladies are going with their man.

Upon entering the restaurant, my friends and I were greeted by everyone in the restaurant. Surprisingly on a Saturday night, the restaurant was not busy so we have seated right away. Our waitress asked if it were our first time eating at their restaurant, to which we replied “YES!” Afterward, she showed us their sushi offerings and gave us suggestions. When we were deciding what to pick, our waitress did not want to leave us hungry and served us some edamame in the meantime. That sort of offering made me feel like it was home. It was not served chilled like other restaurants and was warm and not too salty. After much deliberation, we decided to get 4 mouthfuls of salmon, a couple of specialty rolls, and a bit more sushi.

Are you hungry now?

When we got our food, we munched on it like savage beasts. However, we noticed that the way they served us our food seemed unique. For example, the salmon came with onions and cilantro on top — no other sushi restaurant served it that way. We thought it looked fancier that way, did not change the taste of the salmon, but we preferred not to have the toppings over it on our next round. We also received spider roll, which was decently good and the soft shell crab was crunchy. We also got some tuna, baked salmon, uni, and yellowtail to remember a few. Those tasted as you would expect for an AYCE.

The difference between this place and other AYCE restaurants is the service they provided. They were very attentive when we needed anything, and fast at it. They were also very nice, and let us know what sushi to try based on what we commonly liked. For anyone that is on the fence about going here, I would say it’s worth a trip not for the food, but for the service. I will definitely stop by if I am around the area and craving sushi again.

Over 10 years ago, Starcraft: Brood War spawned a following in North America and an even bigger following in South Korea. Esports at this time was small in comparison to today. However, in South Korea, Brood War established and helped grow the esports scene to what it is today. Thousands of people attended MSL and OSL to watch the likes of Flash, Jaedong, Bisu, and Stork play. The aura of these players not only reached throughout South Korea but reached stateside in North America. The popularity of Starcraft was increasing throughout the world on the heels of Starcraft 2’s release in 2010.

After Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty’s release, Brood War was still a beloved game in South Korea. It was still the top game in PC bangs, before the rise in popularity of League of Legends. SC2 was rising in popularity with the majority of support from its community. In 2012, Blizzard announced KeSPA and OnGameNet are allowed to broadcast SC2 tournaments. SC2 was officially recognized as a KeSPA game. Proleague was going to transition to SC2 only, leaving Brood War behind. In turn, the OSL and MSL folded in 2012 and all the Brood War pros transitioned to SC2 also. Some players found success in SC2 such as Flash, Jaedong, Soulkey, and InNoVation. Others were forced to retire from the professional scene as Brood War was near extinct, although it was still popular in PC bangs. Blizzard was banking on SC2 being the next Brood War, not only being huge in popularity in South Korea, but also worldwide. However, their dreams were destructed and SC2 took a backseat to games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. SC2 does not have the following that it once had 5 years ago. However, the game lives on through the GSL, WCS, and IEM.

With the popularity of League of Legends going for over 5 years, Blizzard tried to ride on its success with titles such as Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and recently, Overwatch. While Overwatch is still in its infancy, the other games did not reach the popularity that Starcraft once had. Recently, Brood War had a resurgence in its professional scene with the ASL airing on Afreeca or on the GSL channel on Twitch. In Season 1 of the ASL, Shuttle (formerly of STX SouL) earned the championship taking down Sharp. In Season 2, we saw the return of Flash, Jaedong, Bisu, Stork, and Soulkey to name a few. At the end of the Season 2, Flash (formerly of KT Rolster) was hailed champion once again defeating Sea. During the championship finals, the ASL drew over 20,000 viewers, a viewer number that Starcraft has not seen since Blizzcon. Since then, the ASL held a Proleague-type season called ASL Team Battle which crowned Team GuemChi (GuemChi, Soulkey, PianO) as champions defeating the titans known as Team Flash (Flash, Last, Rain).

The rejuvenation of Brood War sparked a bulb within Blizzard. Last weekend during the I ❤ Starcraft event, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced Starcraft: Remastered, a modernized version of the classic game. Features include:

Widescreen 4K Ultra HD Resolution

Classic StarCraft Gameplay Remains Untouched

New Illustrations Enhance Original Story

More than 50 Single-Player Missions

Plugged into Blizzard’s Gaming Network

Cloud Saves for Campaign, Custom Maps, Replays, and Keybinds

Localized in 13 languages

To prepare for the release, Brood War will be patched for bug fixes and improvements like Observer Mode, anti-cheat measures, and compatibility with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. Additionally, Yahoo Esports sat with Pete Stilwell, Senior Producer of Classic Games at Blizzard to discuss Starcraft: Remastered. Stilwell revealed that they started production about a year ago. He also mentioned that a number of people who worked on the original Starcraft are still employed with Blizzard, including Lead Artist Brian Sousa, and helped with art for Starcraft: Remastered.

While I do not think Blizzard is trying to find their place in esports, they are trying to solidify a game that would be able to compete with Dota 2, League of Legends, and CS:GO in the next 5 to 10 years. Brood War will take a year or two to re-cement its professional scene, due to the mishandling of SC2 and WCS. However, the rate at which it should grow should be fast because of nostalgia and support from Blizzard. If Brood War can reach heights that it once had, I believe that ceiling can be broken and other Blizzard esports will be able to build on that success. In the meantime, Starcraft: Remastered is building on a lot of hype since the announcement. Blizzard needs to capitalize on its hype and show their support for the game and players once the game is released.